Unity in Christ

Today let us turn to the book of Mark

We are continuing in the life of Jesus. Jesus is continuing to send out the 12, in order to prepare them for the coming day. The day in which he will not be there any more.

But a new gift will be upon them, The Holy Spirit. Which is God living within us. We know that This is a great gift. You have the Holy Spirit living in you. But this isn’t a challenge. We can’t just physically watch, ask, follow, be with.

It’s here on one of these instances that we meet Jesus again. His disciples have just returned to Him from doing work away in preparation. And they have come to report and learn

Mark 9:38–41 CSB

38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he wasn’t following us.” 39 “Don’t stop him,” said Jesus, “because there is no one who will perform a miracle in my name who can soon afterward speak evil of me. 40 For whoever is not against us is for us. 41 And whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ—truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.

Pray

Unity with Christ

We saw someone doing things in you name but wasn’t one of us so we told him to quit

Isn’t that our human nature

If they aren’t against us they can still not be for us. Which life experience has taught us to be true

But Jesus speaks differently

If they aren’t against us they are for us

And where do we see this same attitude played out more than in our churches

We fight and bicker and gossip, back-stab, tear down and stop people from seeing God. And we do it throughout every circle of the ecclesial, The universal Church

Let me explain

Nationalism:

It’s actually a good thing strive for the best of your country. But when put into the church improperly. We get the art of xenophobia, The fear of other nations. Constantly fear and it comes to play in our theology.

Jesus is and American, And He dislikes all the other nations

When in truth many nations are seeing rapid and amazing miracles of God and growth of the kingdom of God And the United states is losing ground

In fact if trends continue China will be the most Christian nation

Denominational-ism:

We divide the Christian church up. Which I can’t say that is a bad thing. I couldn’t be a Catholic there are just to many things that they teach that I don’t agree with. Nor could I be a Methodist. But instead of saying I disagree and letting theologians argue.

We fight instead of agreeing that we want to see Jesus name spread and accepted

We can work together to share Jesus and disagree on how to be Church through the Spirit of Cooperation

Spirit of cooperation:

Not necessarily, agreeing but common goals can be reached.

But even within our own way of thinking. Churches fight for sheep, Instead of finding lost ones. Get upset when someone goes to a different church. That is teaching sound doctrine and is just better suited for them, Steams of living water.

Thank God they are going to church. Where there is teaching And then with in churches themselves we fight over important things Like the bathrooms And color of carpets, And how long should we hold on the papers.

As well as direction and things that do matter

But Unity is something that we don’t find in our human nature. We want to fight.

All of this these Denominational-ism and Nationalism. Don’t have anything on the fighting that seems inherent in the local church. Not just laughlin, we seem to want to destroy each other. We talk bad against others.

But Jesus points out that it is what we want Unity

Working together for the purpose of God and his Kingdom, And it takes work

Corinthians and Ephesians speak on the importance of unity in Christ

But we like to divide ourselves so we don’t have to do the hard work

Satan loves a good fight in church. No one wants to join a fighting church

A house divided cannot stand

That is why we here support missions

That is why we rejoice in churches victory

That is why we diligently preach the word of God and we go and tell others about Christ

We put on armor to fight Satan not each other

Next Steps

What battle are you fighting?

pray